Effects of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and stem cell factor, alone and in combination, on the biological behaviours of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells

Abstract

Aim: The effects of granulocyte colony- stimu-lating factor (G-CSF) and stem cell factor (SCF) on the proliferation and osteogenic differentia-tion capacity of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were studied in the experi-ment. Methods: Bone marrow MSCs were col-lected from rabbits successfully, and treated with various concentrations of G-CSF, SCF or a combination of the two. Flow cytometric ana-lyse, MTT test, CFU-F assay, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity measurement were employed. Results: The results of flow cytome-try showed that immunophenotype of the cells were CD29+/CD45-, CD105+/ CD34–, CD90+/ HLADR–. MSCs were shown to constitutively express low levels of c-kit which could be en-hanced by SCF. G-CSF and SCF had an obvious facilitative effect on the proliferation of MSCs in a dose-dependent fashion. In addition, G-CSF and SCF would be effective in reversibly pre-venting their differentiation, as showed by the decrease of ALP activity, leading to self-renewal rather than differentiative cell divisions. The effects of G-CSF were superior to SCF. And cells in the group treated with combination of G-CSF and SCF showed more powerful effects than the groups treated with G-CS, SCF, or none of the two. Conclusion: On the whole, these studies demonstrated that MSCs responsed to G-CSF, SCF, and to G-CSF plus SCF in a manner that suppressed differentiation, and promotes proliferation and self-renewal, and support the view that these factors could act synergistically.